washington business
From You to Us
Minimum Wage Impact
Thanks for the excellent column. We have many tipped employees whose incentive
is tip compensation, not the base wage. The minimum wage increase isn’t a factor
at all in terms of their job choice. However, it impacts our cost of doing business
significantly and creates a domino effect on other hourly wages in our industry.
Also, what inflation index is L&I using? They are operating in a different world.
Art Campbell, CEO
Campbell’s Resort, Chelan
Thank You for Your Generous Support
Oil Reserves
Letter to AWB President Don Brunell about the June 10
Building Bridges to Prosperity Symposium.
Response to a July 15 column, “No Perfect Solution to Energy Needs,”
by AWB President Don Brunell.
On behalf of our co-host organization — the U.S. Foreign
Commercial Service and the U.S. Consulate (Vancouver) —
and our staff at Pacific Customs Brokers, I am writing
to thank you for your generous support of our Building
Bridges Symposium on June 10.
Approximately 160 delegates attended the
Symposium, from both sides of the border. At the
breakfast and lunch, we were privileged to hear keynote
addresses from B.C Premier Christy Clark and U.S.
Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson; welcoming
remarks from Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts; and a
cross-border policy overview from Matt Morrison, CEO
of Pacific Northwest Economic Region. We feel the
Symposium was as well-covered by the media as could
be expected, considering the Vancouver Canucks played
Game Five of the Stanley Cup Finals at home June 10.
We are very pleased with the outcome of the day, and
received positive feedback from our delegates. We feel
that the Symposium helped raise awareness of ways to
facilitate cross-border trade, and also highlighted the
initiative being undertaken at the highest political level
in Canada and the United States to further facilitate and
expedite trade while enhancing security.
In the near future, we will be contacting you to
discuss your possible involvement in the 2nd Annual
Building Bridges to Prosperity Symposium to be held
in the spring 2012.
Once again, on behalf of our co-hosts, please
accept our sincere appreciation for your support of
our Symposium.
My son John, a resident in the greater Poulsbo area, sent me a portion of the
August issue of the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. Therein is your article,
“No Perfect Solution to Energy Needs.”
Having studied the matter of various energy forms for more than 50 years,
I found much with which to agree in your article. There indeed is no perfect
solution to our energy needs. In terms of energizing the industrial society as
we know it today I am not sure there is any solution to our energy needs, as
almost all alternatives have a low energy density compared with oil, natural
gas or even coal. Biofuels are surely NOT the answer. Solar and wind have
severe limitations of dependability and nuclear also has problems.
But to the point of this letter: You state that “we’re sitting on enough
untapped oil to meet our needs for 300 years.”
I have spent some years with ExxonMobil both here and abroad, and am
reasonably familiar with the oil reserves we have in the U.S. I do not know
that we have enough untapped oil to last us for 300 years. Our current oil
consumption is about 20 million barrels a day — with our projected population
growth just to 2050 people from current 308 million, more oil than the 20
million a day would be demanded. But using the figure of 20 million/day, oil
reserves would have to be an astounding 2.28 trillion barrels. This compares
with current U.S. oil reserves of approximately 26 billion barrels.
I am sure my old company ExxonMobil would li